Reading Comp: Global Reference, Must Be True Questions

[Nadia0702]

Hi PowerScore,
I've done all the HW Reading Comp passages for this lesson and consistently missed 1 question in most of the passages. I'm trying to see if there is a trend in the questions I'm missing and if there's something specific I can do to improve. Here are the questions that I have missed:

GR, Must
CR, Must, SP
GR, Must, AP
GR, Must, AP
GR, MP
CR, Must,
GR, Must, P
GR, Must

Looks like "GR, Must" appears quite frequently - can this trend tell me anything about what I'm doing wrong? I also noticed that in the questions I get wrong, I can often narrow it down to the correct answer choice + 1 and then invariable choose the incorrect answer choice

Thanks for your help!

[Ron Gore]

Hi, Nadia! Thanks for your question.

First, it's great that you have been able to isolate a difficulty you're experiencing in Reading Comprehension. That recognition is the first step to solving the problem.

All the questions you've indicated are Global Reference Questions, which usually are Main Point, Author's Purpose, or Organization questions. Our VIEWSTAMP methodology is designed to focus your initial reading of the passage to provide ready prephrases for these questions without requiring a review of the text.

That you are missing these questions indicates to me that you may not be fully focusing on the VIEWSTAMP components when you read the passage. To review the VIEWSTAMP technique, please revisit the material in Lesson 2 and the Lesson 2 homework.

Also, remember that the Must Be True question type in Reading Comprehension has the same top-to-bottom information flow of all Prove Family questions, including Must Be True questions in the Logical Reasoning section. You should use the same standard in considering the Reading Comprehension Must Be True questions that you use in considering Logical Reasoning Must Be True questions. You've got to apply the Fact Test, so that you enforce the requirement that the correct answer be something you can justify from evidence in the passage.

When I find that someone is getting down to two answers and then picking the wrong one fairly consistently, it often is the case that they have forgotten to focus on the nuance of the language used in the passage. Review Lesson 1 material regarding the importance of language to assist with this. To help people begin to focus more closely on wording, I often ask them, for just a brief time, to try underlining or circling words that are unnecessary to convey the basic meaning of the text.

An example of this can be found in the Gray Marketing passage in Lesson 2. When the author writes, "trademark owners justifiably argue," the adverb "justifiably" is unnecessary to convey the basic information that "trademark owners argue." The addition of the word "justifiably" conveys the author's viewpoint and gives us our first glimpse into the author's purpose in writing. We can then use that information to help us process the fourth paragraph of the passage and be prepared to answer the Global Reference questions.

Hopefully, this information helps. Please let me know if I can assist you further.

Ron

[Nadia0702]

Ron,
Thank you very much for this detailed advice. I've already started following it and so far it's helped! You were correct in that I wasn't focusing a ton on the VIEWSTAMP, in particular with running a constant summary of the passage. I'm getting good at marking the passage, but the "running summary" still requires more practice. Thanks again!